Why Rahul Gandhi received ‘punishment’ at Congress training camp? LoP had to do push-ups because…

Rahul Gandhi is arguably the most powerful leader in the Congress and opposition INDIA bloc’s potential Prime Ministerial candidate for the next Lok Sabha polls. However, the Gandhi scion is apparently not immune to strict rules followed at Congress training camps, which was evident when he received ‘punishment’ at a camp in Madhya Pradesh’s Pachmarhi.

Why Rahul Gandhi received punishment at Congress training camp?

According to a senior Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi arrived late by two minutes for a training camp in Pachmarhi on Sunday, which earned him a ‘punishment’ of ten push-ups.

Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, reportedly complied with the “ten push-ups punishment rule” set by AICC Training Department chief Sachin Rao for participants if they arrived late at the training camp.

“This is nothing new or surprising for our leader, Rahulji, to do. In our camp, we follow the discipline strictly. There is a democracy in the party where all members are equal and treated as equals. There is no bossism in our party like in the BJP”, MP Congress media coordinator Abhinav Barolia,” Madhya Pradesh Congress media media coordinator Abhinav Barolia told news agency PTI.

What is Congress’ Sangathan Srajan Abhiyan?

The training camp, supervised by Sachin Rao, is being conducted under the Sangathan Srajan Abhiyan (SSA), and will conclude on November 21, they said. When contacted, Sachin Rao said wasn’t liberty to talk about what happened in the camp.

The SSA was announced during the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Belagavi held in December last year. The drive was launched on June 3 this year from Bhopal. “We have not been in power in Madhya Pradesh for a long time, and under Mission 2028, we are working toward forming the government in the state once again,” a Congress leader said.

Earlier, while talking to reporters in Pachmarhi before attending the camp, ,Rahul Gandhi claimed that he believes like Haryana, elections were also “stolen” in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh using the same “vote theft” modus operandi. “Vote theft is an issue and SIR now, it is about covering it up and institutionalising the system,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.

Notably, this was Rahul Gandhi’s second visit to Madhya Pradesh in five months as part of an exercise to strengthen the party organisation.